Commemorating St. Jean Vianney

Today is the 150th anniversary of the repose of the simple RC priest known as the Cure d'Ars, St. Jean Marie Vianney. He is the patron of priests in the Roman Church, and he, along with Vladyka John the Wonderworker, Padre Pio, St. Maximillian Kolbe, St. John of Kronstadt, and the Indian Orthodox Prelate, Paulos Mar Gregorios, are among my favorite contemporary or near-contemporary Saints who are priests. In the Kingdom, where they now reign with Christ, I have this impression that they are all close friends.

Joe Heschmeyer, at "Shameless Popery", has written a piece in honor of St. Jean. It is linked below and is well worth your time and attention.

"Happy Feast of St. John Vianney"

May all these Saints intercede before Christ our God for all bishops, priests, and deacons everywhere.

May 2: A modern "Mother of the Faith"

"WE OFFER this incense unto Thee [O Lord] as did Aaron the priest, who burned incense before Thee in the tabernacle and thus withheld the plague from Thy people, Israel. Thus do we commemorate Mary, the Holy Ever-Virgin Mother of God, the prophets and apostles, the righteous and just, the martyrs and confessors and all the Orthodox fathers and mothers of the Faith, the orphans and widows, the distressed and afflicted, the sick and oppressed and all who have asked for our prayers unto Thee, O Lord, and to † Thy Father and Thy Living Holy Spirit in both worlds unto the Aeon of aeons. Amen." (Offering of Incense, Holy Qurbana, West Syriac Rite, ACCA use)

"Blessed Matrona of Moscow" ora pro nobis

May 1: St. Joseph the Worker, International Workers' Day

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days.

Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.

You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have killed the righteous man; he does not resist you. (James 5:1-6, RSV)

Great and Holy Friday

For the Byzantine Orthodox, today is Great and Holy Friday, marking the execution of our Lord upon the cross.

"And the earth quakes in its pain, to behold its Creator slain."

So sings a contemporary [Orthodox] Christian music group called Kerygma, paraphrasing a line from one of the Byzantine Rite services for today.

For those of us using the Gregorian or the Revised Julian calendar, in both East and West, it is also the Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist, traditionally regarded as the author of the Gospel which bears his name (written perhaps to record the memories of his mentor, St. Peter) and the founder of the Church of Alexandria.